INFY

Fave Five (6/30/2017) Triple Play

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Fave Five (6/30/2017)

Our Fave Five essentially represents a listing of stocks with favorable short term total return forecasts (1 year, according to Analyst Consensus Estimates, or ACE) combined with strong long-term return forecasts and good/excellent quality rankings. The average 1-year ACE total return forecast is 9.7%.

This week we return to the triple play screening method for our five favorites. The triple play possibility occurs when you find a stock that is very depressed in price and also appears to be on the verge of substantially boosting its profit margins. The triple play effect is possible in that:

(1) The depressed price of the stock can return to normal levels;

(2) increased profit margins can produce increased EPS and a higher price;

(3) may also cause higher P/E ratios, or P/E expansion.

The Fave Five This Week

  • CVS Health (CVS)
  • Gentex (GNTX)
  • IMAX (IMAX)
  • Infosys Tech (INFY)
  • Monro Muffler (MNRO)

The Long and Short of This Week’s Fave Five

The Long & Short. (June 30, 2017) Projected Annual Return (PAR): Long term return forecast based on fundamental analysis and five year time horizon. Quality Ranking: Percentile ranking of composite that includes financial strength, earnings stability and relative growth & profitability. VL Low Total Return (VLLTR): Low total return forecast based on 3-5 year price targets via Value Line Investment Survey. Morningstar P/FV: Ratio of current price to fundamentally-based fair value via www.morningstar.com S&P P/FV: Current price-to-fair value ratio via Standard & Poor’s. 1-Year ACE Outlook: Total return forecast based on analyst consensus estimates for 1-year target price combined with current yield. The data is ranked (descending order) based on this criterion. 1-Year S&P Outlook: 1-year total return forecast based on S&P 1-year price target. 1-Yr GS: 1-year total return forecast based on most recent price target issued by Goldman Sachs.

Fave Five Legacy (Tracking Portfolio)

The rate of return for the tracking portfolio is 15.2% since inception.

The relative/excess return for the Fave Five tracking portfolio is +0.2% since inception. 45.7% of selections have outperformed the Wilshire 5000 since original selection.

Tracking Dashboard: https://www.manifestinvesting.com/dashboards/public/fave-five

Fave Five: Triple Play (3/3/2017)

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Fave Five (3/3/2017)

Our Fave Five essentially represents a listing of stocks with favorable short term total return forecasts (1 year, according to Analyst Consensus Estimates, or ACE) combined with strong long-term return forecasts and good/excellent quality rankings. The average 1-year ACE total return forecast is 6.9%.

This week we return to the triple play screening method for our five favorites. The triple play possibility occurs when you find a stock that is very depressed in price and also appears to be on the verge of substantially boosting its profit margins. The triple play effect is possible in that:

(1) The depressed price of the stock can return to normal levels;

(2) increased profit margins can produce increased EPS and a higher price;

(3) may also cause higher P/E ratios, or P/E expansion.

The Fave Five This Week

  • Abbvie (ABBV)
  • CVS Health (CVS)
  • Infosys Tech (INFY)
  • Polaris (PII)
  • Proto Labs (PRLB)

The Long and Short of This Week’s Fave Five

The Long & Short. (March 3, 2017) Projected Annual Return (PAR): Long term return forecast based on fundamental analysis and five year time horizon. Quality Ranking: Percentile ranking of composite that includes financial strength, earnings stability and relative growth & profitability. VL Low Total Return (VLLTR): Low total return forecast based on 3-5 year price targets via Value Line Investment Survey. Morningstar P/FV: Ratio of current price to fundamentally-based fair value via www.morningstar.com S&P P/FV: Current price-to-fair value ratio via Standard & Poor’s. 1-Year ACE Outlook: Total return forecast based on analyst consensus estimates for 1-year target price combined with current yield. The data is ranked (descending order) based on this criterion. 1-Year S&P Outlook: 1-year total return forecast based on S&P 1-year price target. 1-Yr GS: 1-year total return forecast based on most recent price target issued by Goldman Sachs.

Fave Five Legacy (Tracking Portfolio)

The relative/excess return for the Fave Five tracking portfolio is +0.3% since inception. 53.1% of selections have outperformed the Wilshire 5000 since original selection.

Tracking Dashboard: https://www.manifestinvesting.com/dashboards/public/fave-five

Fave Five (1/13/2017)

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Fave Five (1/13/2017)

Our Fave Five essentially represents a listing of stocks with favorable short term total return forecasts (1 year, according to Analyst Consensus Estimates, or ACE) combined with strong long-term return forecasts and good/excellent quality rankings. The average 1-year ACE total return forecast is 8.0%.

This week we take a slight departure to pay homage to remarks made by Jeff Gundlach during the DoubleLine “Just Markets” webcast on Tuesday. Specifically, the macro observations included a nudge to consider equities in places like India and Japan, suggesting that U.S./Canada valuations might be getting a little steep.

Turning attention to the universe of stocks outside the U.S. & Canada, we find another “Lost Decade.” The stocks in the Morgan Stanley iShares MSCI EAFE exchange traded fund (EFA) have delivered a -0.6% return ANNUALIZED since 2007 while the Wilshire 5000 checks in at 7.3%. So we went searching for the highest ranked stocks that call an address “home” outside either Canada or the United States.

We granted Stella-Jones (SJ-TO) an exception in honor of Jeremy Grantham’s honorary timber class.

For more information on joining our 11th annual Groundhog Challenge, launching 2/2/2017, as either a group or an individual investor, drop a note to markr@manifestinvesting.com.

The Fave Five This Week

  • Baidu (BIDU)
  • Infosys Tech (INFY)
  • MercadoLibre (MELI)
  • Stella-Jones (SJ-TO)
  • Teva Pharma (TEVA)

The Long and Short of This Week’s Fave Five

The Long & Short. (January 13, 2017) Projected Annual Return (PAR): Long term return forecast based on fundamental analysis and five year time horizon. Quality Ranking: Percentile ranking of composite that includes financial strength, earnings stability and relative growth & profitability. VL Low Total Return (VLLTR): Low total return forecast based on 3-5 year price targets via Value Line Investment Survey. Morningstar P/FV: Ratio of current price to fundamentally-based fair value via www.morningstar.com S&P P/FV: Current price-to-fair value ratio via Standard & Poor’s. 1-Year ACE Outlook: Total return forecast based on analyst consensus estimates for 1-year target price combined with current yield. The data is ranked (descending order) based on this criterion. 1-Year S&P Outlook: 1-year total return forecast based on S&P 1-year price target. 1-Yr GS: 1-year total return forecast based on most recent price target issued by Goldman Sachs.

Fave Five Legacy (Tracking Portfolio)

The relative/excess return for the Fave Five tracking portfolio is +3.6% since inception. 45.1% of selections have outperformed the Wilshire 5000 since original selection.

Tracking Dashboard: https://www.manifestinvesting.com/dashboards/public/fave-five

Round Table (November 2016)

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November Round Table

Our Round Table, a monthly session featuring our favorite stock ideas right now in true round table fashion, was held November 29.

Stocks Discussed

  • CVS Health (CVS)
  • Infosys Tech (INFY)
  • Mercadolibre (MELI)

The stocks selected for this program over the last six years have collectively beaten the Wilshire 5000. The excess return (annualized) has been ranging from 2-3%. We seek actionable opportunities to study and pursue.

The agenda will also include a continuation of our selling decision concept based on relative return.

The round table knights include small company champion and Mid-Michigan Director Ken Kavula; Cy (MythBuster) Lynch; pharmaceutical scientist Hugh McManus; and Manifest Investing’s Mark Robertson who will analyze their favorite stocks. Guest damsels have included Anne Manning, Susan Maciolek and Kim Butcher. Guest knights who have jousted include Nicholas Stratigos, Herb Lemcool and Matt Spielman.

The audience selected CVS Health (CVS).

Positions closed/sold: Knight Transportation (KNX), Landauer (LDR), PRA Group (PRAA), US Physical Therapy (USPH)

The tracking portfolio has been updated at: https://www.manifestinvesting.com/dashboards/public/round-table

Rt poll 20161129

Happy Valentine’s Day, MANIFEST Nation!

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Rolling Over … Watching 2015 Roll In

Happy Valentine’s Day, MANIFEST Nation!

With Issue 13 of the Value Line Investment Survey landing this week, we’ll soon be getting our first look at some of those 2015 sales and earnings forecast — likely starting next week.

We’d like to be able to say that the carnage has abated, but we can’t. The stealthy reductions in expectations continue and the 2014 forecasts are considerably weaker to start the year than we generally see. Keep in mind that these forecasts have historically eroded from optimistic starting gate positions that steadily get smaller as the calendar pages turn. It’s a pretty unusual year where this is not the case.

We also note the population of Materially Weaker companies continues to exceed the Materially Stronger based on quarter-over-quarter changes in the Value Line long-term forecasts. We would not have been surprised to see this slow down a bit, but as displayed below, the number of weakening situations continues to outpace opportunity.

Here’s a look at the Net Profitability profile and trend for the Value Line industrials as 2013 locks in (actual results) and readies for the 2015 roll call. It’s not horrific, but it is one of the reasons I still say that people who spoke and respected recessionary pressures during 2013 were at least partially right. The current economic recovery, although steady, is still quite lackluster.

Companies of Interest

We’ll do a quick profile of KKR (KKR) based on the Value Line low total return forecast and solid overall condition of the company. We also note that Cognizant Technology (CTSH) and Infosys Tech (INFY) continue to portend better days ahead.

Western Union (WU) is favored at both Morningstar and S&P in this week’s batch and it has served Kim Butcher quite well as a long-time Round Table selection.

Materially Stronger: LinkedIn (LNKD)

Materially Weaker: EZCorp (EZPW), Mantech International (MANT), Federated Investors (FII), Amazon (AMZN), Fusion-io (FIO)

Morningstar Price-to-Fair Value Nudges

The average P/FV for the companies in this week’s update according to Morningstar is 108%.

Standard & Poor’s P/FV Nudges

The average P/FV for the companies in this week’s update according to S&P is 100%.

Market Barometers

The Value Line low total return forecast is 3.2%, up from 3.0% last week.

This Week at MANIFEST (11/15/2013)

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Movember? Going Grubby?

I’m not sure whether it’s a hunting season thing … or merely an excuse that many men use to take a break from shaving, but Movember is in full swing in many places. Beard Mania was celebrated BIG in Boston during their recent World Series conquest with many of the Red Sox players sporting facial hair that would have made bearded Civil War combatants proud.  The appearance, including some modest twerking with Carrie Underwood, by Duck Dynasty with Willie Robertson and his fam on the Country Music Awards further popularized canning the razor blades and donning the bandana …

But the shaving continues when it comes to the fundamental analysis of our update batch. We continue (with a few notable exceptions cited below) to see that stealthy reduction of long-term forecasts combining with erosion of 2013 and 2014 consensus estimates on both the top and bottom lines.

And to the U.S. veterans who have served, and their incredible contributions to freedom, whether you decide to sport a moustache, beard or both — we say a simple THANK YOU! from the bottom of our hearts. Simply put, YOU ROCK.

Companies of Interest

There’s a smidge more companies on the “Stronger” line this week, but still nothing to write home about. Microsoft (MSFT) finally received a fundamental upgrade and Priceline’s price surge over the last several months (+61.8% over the trailing 12 months) also merited a closer look and a modest boost. But the trimming continues to far outweigh any boosting as the rhinos seem to refuse to Movember with the rest of a stubbly and grubby nation.

Materially Stronger: Microsoft (MSFT) 2, Priceline (PCLN) 3, Zions Bancorp (ZION)

Materially Weaker: Fusion-IO (FIO), Teradata (TDC) 1, Nuance Communications (NUAN), LinkedIn (LNKD)

1 Teradata (TDC) reduced to $65, from $75, on long-term low price forecast. Annualized return drops from 14% to 10.2%.

2 Microsoft (MSFT) raised from $40 to $45 for long-term low price forecast.

3 Priceline (PCLN) raised from $1265 to $1380 for long-term low price forecast.

Market Barometers

The median Value Line low total return forecast (VLLTR) remains unchanged at 3.9% during this week’s update.

Bottom Fishing (6/13/2013)

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In this month’s cover story, we took a closer look at one of the screening methods used by Hugh McManus. In a nutshell, he searches for high-quality companies trading near a selected low price. The current price is compared versus a selected low price which is dependent on the company’s growth rate. The higher the growth rate, the further back Hugh goes in history to compare.

The following results illustrates why he’d avoid Apple (AAPL) and keep in mind that he’s generally disinterested unless this ratio (price-to-selected low price) is less than 25%.

Position screen 20130613

Value Line Low Total Return Screen (5/17/2013)

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Companies of Interest

Materially Stronger: Cognizant Technology (CTSH), Legg Mason (LM), ACI Worldwide (ACIW), AON (AON), Amazon (AMZN), Mastercard (MA), Yahoo! (YHOO), Bank of America (BAC), AOL (AOL), LinkedIn (LNKD)

Materially Weaker: Baidu (BIDU), Bank of Hawaii (BOH), RealNetworks (RNWK)

Market Barometers

The Value Line low total return forecast is 6.7%, unchanged from last week.

Core Diem: A Tasking Portfolio

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If you’ve been following along since last October, you’ve probably seen a number of selections that seem to have been snake bite victims. The most recent injured stock is Infosys Tech (INFY) down some -21% this morning as the company admits that they’re tired of “lingering economic malaise.” We’ll be watching the 16-17 analysts who cover INFY to see if forecasts for 2013 and 2014 weaken materially in days ahead.

As I shared with Cy Lynch this morning, in honor of one of the best lines delivered by Ricardo Montalban (Khan) with respect to his adversary William Shatner (Captain Kirk) this portfolio TASKS ME

The outperformance accuracy of Core Diem is now 13% with a relative return of -11% after this morning’s carnage. (Cognizant Technology lost ground in sympathy with their industry peers at INFY.) Ugh.

But this condition is really nothing new — as Cy consistently and persistently reminds (as do Ken Kavula and Hugh McManus quite often) — TIME is not a 4-letter word. Our mettle is tested.

This current market surge is full of flaky stakes making new highs. As a case in point, today’s rage is Rite-Aid (RAD) with their quality ranking of ZERO as the stock price soars from $1.50 to $2.25. Nope, there’s no decimal place missing.

We’ll continue to add a stock per day to Core Diem going forward and look forward to the day when we celebrate a positive relative return.

Flake at will. We continue to believe that seeking high-quality companies when they’re comfortably in the sweet spot (our version of Graham’s margin of safety) is still a pretty good idea and that TIME is on our side.

Core Diem Model Portfolio

Fusion Screen (4/9/2013)

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By Deglr6328 (Wikimedia Commons)

Infosys Tech (INFY) remains among the more interesting stocks in our Fusion Screen.

Recent Solomon Select feature Atwood Oceanics (ATW) continues to represent the Energy sector. Apple (AAPL) may have more short-term downside when it comes to price, but is a solid selection for committed long-term investors.

Screening Criteria:

1. Fusion Ranking = 100. (Combination of Fundamental and Technical Factors)
2. Quality Ranking greater than 60.
3. Bullish Point-and-Figure Sentiment. (Source: Stockcharts.com)
4. Price-to-Fair Value less than 100%. (Sources: Morningstar and S&P)

Fusion screen 20130409